Aug.19 Rockport to Plymouth

Another early day, hot, but clear skies and NO FOG!! This was the first morning with no morning moisture on deck. Planned to go to Scituate or Plymouth, depending on conditions. We have now decided to push our way home due to reports of a hurricane moving along the East Coast. Also wind and tide will be perfect for going through the Cape Cod Canal on Thursday. So we headed out of Rockport, rounded the twin lighthouse towers off Cape Ann and headed South toward home port.
With sails out on a broad reach, the current with us, we reached cruising speeds of 8.0K over ground. We could not see the Boston skyline due to heat haze but ocean visibility was great! Jane was disappointed we were not travelling as close to the whale grounds and commented on the lack of sea life like we saw in Maine. At 9:40 she spotted some splashing off the port side and immediately thought it might be another whale. It turned out to be even better! It was a pod of 8-10 dolphins arching their way towards our boat. They shifted to the port side, crossed aft and arched along the starboard side before moving away. What a wonderful sight to see. It really made our trip that day!

At 1:45 we arrived in Plymouth Harbor, and got a mooring from the Plymouth Yacht Club right near the breakwater. We could see the Plymouth Rock monument from where we were. It would be a great place to stay and visit for a few days. The yacht club charged $45 per night, free launch, and full use of their facilities. Our daughter, Natalie came for a visit and brought some groceries for us to last another 3 days.

When trying to watch the weather & news on TV that night we discovered our inverter was not working. There were a few moments of panic because we could not charge computers without it and we depend on them for weather reports and chart plotting. After the rush of adrenalin Jane remembered that we had used 2 small portable inverters before the larger one was installed so we had a backup! Can't say enough for spares.

Plymouth Rock really is there inside the monument in the center of this picture!